Quilts Help Tell the Stories of Freedom at Barnes & Noble in Eatontown

Two guests brought quilts of their own making to the Barnes & Noble store in Eatontown on Saturday to  help demonstrate the hidden language of the underground railway which guided slaves to the north and freedom.

Children visiting the Monmouth Mall store explored Black History month through quilts and stories.  Regular children’s program coordinator Jannie Jones was joined by Alexis Delbridge of the High School of Art and Design in New York. Delbridge, a native New Yorker, who counts Marc Jacobs as a former student has recently traced her family history back to a slave named Cain Delbridge who was born in 1810 in Brunswick County, Virginia.

The book The Patchwork Quilt by Betty Stroud explains the various patterns and their meanings as a young slave girl is taught to quilt by her mother.  The quilts on display created a beautiful back drop to the story and demonstrated many of the important patterns including the North Star and Monkey Wrench patterns.

Jeanette Winter’s Follow the Drinking Gourd is the story of a song slaves used to teach each other of the path to the north.  Both books celebrated the ingenuity of the slaves who were mostly illiterate and found ways to pass on their knowledge and heritage.